When I brewed Denny's BVIP a while back a did two vanilla seeds in the secondary for two weeks. I'll say that it was maybe a little over the top on vanilla flavor but not by much. I think if I did it again maybe I'd decrease the time.

Edit - Just realized I quoted Denny's recipes twice in a short amount of time. Not sucking up here, I was just on TB at the time I brewed them and was happy with the results! But yes, I shamelessly copied the recipes.

If the beans are fresh and/or high quality, I would start with one. Two is just overkill IME. I just split them lengthwise and chop into a few pieces, then add to the secondary. I would start tasting after a week but depending on how much vanilla flavor you want, it will probably be 2-3 in the secondary.

Good to know but there will be no bourbon in this beer so the vanilla should come thru differently

Fred

There's no bourbon in my recipe until well after the beans have been in, so I'm pretty familiar with how just the vanilla tastes. I use 2 fresh beans. I split then lengthwise, scrape out all the seeds inside, chop the pods into 2-3 in. pieces, and add it all. seeds and pods, to the secondary. I leave it anywhere from a week to 2 weeks, tasting along the way til it's where I like it. I generally let it go til it's a bit on the heavy side since it fades quickly, I've found. The vanilla should complement the beer, not make you go "WOW, VANILLA!"

I just racked some of Denny's VBIP into the secondary over 3 Madagasgar Vanilla Bean pods that were scraped. First time making this beer. It sure tastes great out of the hydrometer tube....and those vanilla beans smell wonderful.

At first I thought my finishing gravity of 1.024 was high until I remembered that I started at 1.089 AND the amount of unfermentables was significant in the recipe.